


king and lionheart

by yespeon



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-21
Updated: 2019-03-21
Packaged: 2019-11-26 20:52:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18185603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yespeon/pseuds/yespeon
Summary: An early morning chat between a prince and the captain of the royal guard amidst a sparring match. For the #KH_60MIN "Royalty" prompt on Twitter.





	king and lionheart

**Author's Note:**

> This is part of the #KH_60MIN prompt on twitter, where each week new prompts are given and everyone has 60 minutes to create an art piece based on it. Well, I can't draw, but when this week's theme was announced to be "royalty" I figured I should show off my royalty AU a little bit. This may become a part of a larger thing, but for now, it's something slapped together in an hour, so please try to forgive the pacing.
> 
> Mildly inspired by King Harrow and Queen Sarai sparring while discussing politics in S2 of The Dragon Prince.

The sun rose over the mountaintops of the Ursus kingdom, the dew on the grass of the castle grounds glistening in its light. Normally, one would be able to hear the song of birds chirping throughout the gardens, but—

_CLANG!_

—this morning’s ruckus was a bit too loud to keep most of them around.

Terra attempted in vain to adjust the circlet on his head. It was beginning to slide off the side— he had forgotten to take it off and it was too late to do so now. Granted, he could’ve easily called a halt to his sparring match, but he wasn’t about to do so when he was winning. Or at least, when he thought he had a chance today.

“I can’t believe your father is actually allowing the prince of Leopardis to come here to train.” Aqua said as she crashed her sword into his, the sheer momentum of it sending shockwaves up to his elbow. “He hates King Gula.” 

Terra parried another blow before sweeping her sword off to the side, dodging before throwing his broadsword up to block once again. “He’s always been friends with Queen Ava though. She thought it would be a good idea.”

The force of his next sword swing had Aqua parry with the metal guard on her arm before swinging her blade in an uppercut to meet his. “Even if her intentions are innocent what if the prince’s aren’t? Easy way to learn an enemy’s tactics.”

“You’re always thinking like we’re about to go to war.” Terra sighed, to which Aqua rolled her eyes.

“I’m a knight, it’s kind of my job.” 

She wasn’t entirely wrong, though. Terra knew his father and King Gula had always been enemies at best, and accepting his wife Ava at her word that the intention of this visit wasn’t to learn Ursus secrets did seem a bit naive. “I think my father mentioned something that the king thinks the prince is just going off to some extra schooling, or something.”

He barely finished his sentence before his and Aqua’s swords met in the middle once again. “Again, I’m not sure how much we should trust them. Just saying that as captain of the guard.” A smile did tug at her lips a little. “Although I’m not sure I could tell His Majesty his invitation is stupid to his face.”

“You should, I bet my mother would think it’s funny.” Terra smirked as he jumped back and narrowly missed Aqua’s blade to the side of his head. He dug his heels into the earth before lunging forward, Aqua parrying and nimbly dodging his swing. He huffed in frustration. “Besides, how dangerous do you think a sixteen year old even is?”

“Very.” Aqua replied flatly. “If you’ll recall I was made captain at that age.” She glanced at the sword in her hand, a legendary blade that only chose the bravest of Ursus’ knights to be their leader. Many would consider it the highest honor, but from practically feeling the anxiety in her gut with every blow from her sword, Terra knew better.

It was the heaviest of burdens.

“Don’t know if I would’ve called you ‘dangerous’ at sixteen,” Terra teased in an attempt to lighten the mood, although he swore Aqua’s blade came down on his own with just a bit more intensity than usual despite her smile.

“Oh? Are you willing to elaborate on that?” Aqua asked with her eyebrow raised and Terra decided immediately that he should attempt to start climbing out of the grave he was slowly digging for himself.

“Going to have to say no.” Maybe he wasn’t going to be winning today’s sparring match after all. Aqua had backed him into a corner, literally and figuratively. He brought up his sword to parry again. “Anyway, I think you’re over-analyzing this whole visit from Prince… Vent? Venus?”

Aqua stood back, lowering her blade as she brought her other hand to cover her laughter. “Ventus? You know you’re going to need to memorize an awful lot of names someday, you should really get better at it—”

That one moment where she lowered her guard was all he needed. He brought his blade up to meet hers and turned with the momentum, his back now facing away from the edge of the training grounds. As quick as he thought he was, Aqua was faster, and without skipping a single beat her sword met his in a sharp ringing tone. His grip faltered, his sword flying out of his hand to stick upright in the earth.

But that wasn’t even the most embarrassing part.

Almost as if to add insult to injury, Aqua flicked her wrist up to summon a block of ice behind Terra’s heel, causing him to trip and land on his back. He looked up to see the silvery tip of a blade pointed at his neck.

“You thought I had my guard down.” Aqua grinned a little boastfully. “You should worry about things more often, Terra. If I were a bandit, you’d be dead right now.”

“I don’t know,” Terra mused, returning her smile as he looked up at her, “from where I’m at right now, I think I kind of like not worrying.”

The words left him before he could even stop to think about the implications, the heat rising to his cheeks, although he knew his face was likely not nearly as red and flustered as Aqua’s. She stood frozen, lips parted as if she had a witty reply on the tip of her tongue that had been lost in her own surprise.

Whatever spell he had momentarily cast was shattered by a loud voice calling out from the castle ramparts. 

“That move was awesome! Do it again!”

The two looked up to see a blonde haired boy that had to be the Leopardis prince along with Kairi, Riku, and Sora leaning over the edge of the castle watching the fight (and fortunately, Terra thought, out of earshot, although not out of sight as he noticed Sora begrudgingly hand a very smug Riku some money.) 

Aqua straightened herself up with a cough as if it would temper the blush on her cheeks, sheathing her blade. “Well, I just might like this new prince after all.”


End file.
